Wednesday, January 30, 2008


Grin and bear it


Well, thanks. I really didn't appreciate that.

But it was worthwhile right? Everyone had a good laugh for 3 secs.

posted by nwxiang at 7:00 PM | 0 comments


Friday, January 25, 2008


Moonlight shone through the windows....


...and the sky was ablaze with stars...







Last photo: Close-up of the Orion. Almost the whole Hunter can be traced in the photo.

posted by nwxiang at 12:38 AM | 0 comments


Wednesday, January 23, 2008


I fixed the freaking BUG!!!!


Users of IE6 and below will undoubtedly notice that this page has been fixed. Yes. I repeat, THIS PAGE HAS BEEN FIXED!!! Woohoo!!! For the technically-inclined, IE likes to add spacing between div tags, causing my floated elements (which make up the main text and the sidebar) to be unable to fit into the non-floated container, pushing the main-content downwards as seen previously. The simple fix is to insert "display: inline;" under the floated elements.

For the unenlightened: This just one of the things that goes to show that IE is inferior to Firefox. Pls convert if u haven't. =P

posted by nwxiang at 3:36 PM | 0 comments


Saturday, January 19, 2008


Lazy days


I wonder when in my life will I get to do this again - sleeping until I 自然醒, then strolling leisurely in the soft morning sunshine to the swimming pool; after a nice relaxing swim, walk back in the warm afternoon sun; eating lunch and running in the afternoon with my best friend, singing and joking in the stadium while we are running; ending my day by eating dinner and chilling out with my friends....

I love this week man... lazy orangy afternoons...with the occasional storm during which I curl up and sleep or blast loud music in my room.... wad a long overdue break..

posted by nwxiang at 12:21 AM | 1 comments


Thursday, January 17, 2008


Clarity


I didn't think I could be so rational, so clear-minded. Anyway it's time to have a good rest.

posted by nwxiang at 1:42 PM | 0 comments


Wednesday, January 16, 2008


Complicated


Why does it always have to be so complicated? Why can't it be just plain simple? Or am I being too naive? Too idealistic?

posted by nwxiang at 12:00 AM | 0 comments


Thursday, January 10, 2008


Free parts giveaway


I am fixing up a new rig for my sis. Might be left over with a lot of still viable parts, including a MSI motherboard, an AMD Athlon XP processor and a ATI Radeon X600 graphics card. Parts are not guaranteed to be fully functioning (that's why I need to fix up a new one). So I'm giving them out, since I probably wun be able to sell them also. So why not benefit my friends?

Anyone wans to take the parts? (you do so at your own risk if you do though). Technical support can be provided FOC if u are a good fren. HAHA.

posted by nwxiang at 4:40 PM | 0 comments


Tuesday, January 08, 2008


I am damn 哑吧.


I seriously dunno why I experience psychomotor retardation everytime I.......... haiz.. sometimes really feel like slapping myself..

posted by nwxiang at 1:17 AM | 0 comments


Sunday, January 06, 2008


HUUURRRR?!?!?!?


I do not and don't think I will ever understand the XX phenotype...

posted by nwxiang at 9:26 PM | 0 comments


Saturday, January 05, 2008


Weak.


Feel so tired after puking blood. Actually why I feel so dulan huh? I also dunno. I should be used to it by now.

posted by nwxiang at 12:22 AM | 0 comments


Puke blood.


Feel like ex-sanguinating. BLEEAAAaaaaaaaarrrrgh. Urrrrrghhhh.

posted by nwxiang at 12:13 AM | 0 comments


Friday, January 04, 2008


Bring On 2008


I'm tired. I'm sleepy. I've got shit loads of work piled up. I'm discouraged. I'm demoralised. I'm doubtful. I'm un-confident. I feel like giving up.

But I will not. I cannot and must not. And perhaps mostly, I am unable to.

posted by nwxiang at 12:42 AM | 1 comments


Tuesday, January 01, 2008


2007 In Review


Well, it has certainly been an eventful year, full of its ups and downs. If my year was plotted on a ECG, it would have resembled ventricular fibrillation.. (sorry, for non-med ppl, here's a picture of v-fib on ECG) Where shall I start? Why not start from the beginning...


CAs and Exams
The year started off with the usual CAs and exams...like 2008 is going to.. I must say it was a particularly trying time, physically, mentally, emotionally.. or let's just say, in more ways than one.. it was a roller coaster ride from the start to the very last day of MBBS II part 1... and I must thank those who rode the roller coaster wif me.. without your firm support, I might have fallen off halfway through the loops and turns..


Clincal Skills Foundation Course - Alexandra Hospital
This was like a beginning of a new life - clinical work. First time following ward rounds; first time left on our own in the wards; first time clerking real patients; first time putting a stethoscope on real patients; first time taking blood; first time setting plugs; first time doing night calls; first time performing a PR (non-med speak = sticking ur finger into someone else's anus); first time stitching up a real wound...etc etc...

How to describe the feeling? Like being thrown into the deep end of the pool and being expected to do butterfly strokes.. Suddenly, for the first time, I got to peek into the everyday lives of doctors, so different from what I had imagined.. its like nothing I have studied in the previous 2 years had prepared me for what was happening.. faced with people with symptoms and signs instead of diseases in textbooks, I suddenly feel so ignorant, so helpless.. and also overcoming the hestitancy and reluctance to just go up to strangers and ask about intimate parts of their lives wasn't that easy for me too...

But slowly, slowly, the awkwardness started to fade a little, the strides became a little more confident, and the fingers stopped fumbling (that much) with the stethoscope.. and when I got into tempo, BAM! the posting was over...

Most memorable quote: "Medicine is an apprenticeship, like the Jedis, master to apprentice.." From Dr Dennis Seow, Consultant at AH.


General Surgery - National University Hospital
And then 3 weeks later, it was the first formal clinical posting at NUH... More firsts... first time poking my finger through a perforated peptic ulcer intra-operatively (of cos not the whole finger laa); first time touching and flipping around a resected loop of bowel; first time rolling around a resected breast lump in my palm; first time palpating a rectal cancer during a PR; first time setting a successful plug...etc etc..

I must say that the hardest part of surgery was actually not the end-of-posting test, but surviving the verbal onslaught of the surgeons.. Getting zham-ed in the OT, in the resident's room, in the corridors, at the patients' beds, in the canteen, in the clinics, and even once in the changing rooms.. sometimes it feels like doing mental push-ups..

Life was made more bearable by the ever-frenly, ever-helpful HOs of ward 43 (and some MOs la).. Need cases? Need questions answered? Need to use the CPSS? Need to tok kok? Need to gossip? Find your nearest ward 43 HO..haha

And as the end of the 8 weeks approached, we found our clinical and presentation skills were honed to rival the edge of the scalpel by the general impatience of the general surgeons - clean, sharp, to the point. Any redundant or irrelevant information in our presentation drew flak. We learned, the hard way, the meaning of the overused phrase in medicine, "do not dig your own grave"...

Most memorable quote: "Learn to sleep less!!" from various surgeons and MOs..


General Medicine - Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Just when I thought I knew how to take a history, do a physical examination and present my findings, gen med destroyed me on the very first day of the posting. Leg pain and breathlessness? Totally unrelated! Wait. DVT and embolus to lung. Oh shit, they never taught that in surgery... Diabetes? How long has the patient had diabetes? How was he diagnosed? What medication is he taking? Has he been properly educated? How often does he follow-up? Has he been experiencing any hypoglycemic episodes? Previous myocardial infarct/ischemic heart disease/stroke/blurring of vision/change in sensation/ulcers.....(you know, I could go on and on and on...)

15 mins to take a history? Haha, you must be joking.

But there's a reason why people say that the teaching at TTSH is gold standard. 4 tutorials in a day, each lasting near 2hrs? Tutorials during night calls at 9pm? Tutorials on saturdays? Consultants calling medical students to tell them about cases? Consultants running around the wards to find cases for our tutorials??? Seriously.

As the end-of-posting test approached, we lapsed into this never-ending cycle of history, examination and presentation. We abused each other verbally and intellectually without mercy; we scrambled for every "interesting" case; we begged patients to let us examine them "just one more time"; and we bugged every HO we meet for cases to see...

And I must say that was the best posting I had so far.. because of the sheer amount of things I learned.. and also because a lot of my good friends were at TTSH at that time... but sadly.. I had to be over-confident and screw up my end-of-posting test.. once again, I apologise to my tutors..haiz..

Most memorable quote: "There are only 2 kinds of sickness in medical school - sick of work, and love-sick" from Dr Noel Tay, consultant at TTSH


Family Medicine - GP Clinic, Dover park hospice, St Andrew Community Hospital and Bedok Polyclinic
To those who think fammed posting is a waste of time, I beg to differ. Fammed really corrected my skewed perspective of the healthcare system. So what if you know what the murmur of a mitral regurgitation sounds like? So what if you know how to localise a stroke? Common things happen commonly..I found myself helpless when faced with a simple condition like a cold...those postings in the hospitals really threw us off course as we only saw serious cases that require hospitalisation..

Fammed also reawakened me to the human element of healthcare. Ideas, concerns, expectations.. think they are crap? Try again.. why do people see doctors? why are some doctors seen as good doctors, some seen as lousy ones? Is it their clinical skills? Nah.. do you think your patient really cares if you can differentiate coarse crepitations from fine crepitations?

Fammed also made me realise how little medicine can really do.. from the simplest affliction such as the common cold to the most malignant of cancers, a lot of times we can't do anything about it.. we can only provide "supportive" or "symptomatic" treatment... I hesitate to use the cliche phrase: "To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always", but there is really no better way to describe this..

Most memorable quote: "The best screening test for lung cancer is the question: Do you smoke?" from Prof Goh Li Gan, COFM dept


Emergency Medicine - Singapore General Hospital
Lights, stethoscope, action! Well, actually most of the posting wasn't as exciting as I had hoped for, but I guess the TV shows have been getting to me.. But this was a close contender with Gen Med for the best posting I had so far.. being on the ground in the thick of the frenzy, clerking patients coming into the hospital fresh.. doing procedures.. observing a real resuscitation for the first time.. ambulance runs.. so many things to see, so many things to learn, so many things to do...4 weeks just wasn't enough..

Perhaps one of the most memorable incident was this patient who was successfully cardioverted. They say you have to witness 50 resuscitations to see one patient successfully revived, but on the 2nd resuscitation I observed, the patient was successfully converted from ventricular fibrillation to sinus rhythm.. Elderly lady, collapsed, brought in by paramedics.. advanced cardiac life support performed.. defibrillated just for the sake of doing so... and guess wad.. sinus rhythm..stunned look on everybody's faces..

And towards the end of the posting, by the sheer turn of fortune or fate or luck or wadever you call it, within one week, I got to be medical student, patient and patient's relative... it was..really a different experience..

Most memorable quote: "Why is the world so screwed up?" from dear CG mate Ning Qi (sorry inside joke)


Life's Lessons
And that ends the clincal postings for this academic year... allow me to summarise the things that I have learned academically and otherwise...So many things learned in 2007... allow me to highlight a few which I feel hold exceptional importance...

Never forget that you were a medical student once. If I were forced to categorize the medical fraternity into 2 kinds of people only, I would give the following: doctors who remembered that they were also students once, and doctors who think that they were born doctors.

When you step into the wards, it is never about you. This is another quote from Dr Seow. And how true it is.. We often think like this: I need to learn; I need to see this case; I need to take a history; I need to elicit this sign; I need to do my bloods; I need to complete my ward rounds; I need to clerk a case for my write up; I need to do my discharge summaries... I, I and I... and we forget that it is actually all about the patients, not us at all... and in life too, i think we think about ourselves too much..

The ones that you care about are the ones that are able to hurt you the most. Similarly, the ones that care about you are the ones that you are able to hurt most...


General appraisal
I wouldn't say that 2007 was a particularly bad year.. just that there were some lows that were really low.. and there were times when I thought it couldn't get any shittier, it got shittier.. It would be inconvenient for me to elaborate the details, but my friends would know bah...

Of cos it wasn't all lows.. there were certain highlights...like the elaborately plotted birthday schemes for instance..hahaha, and of cos my own elaborately planned birthday scheme... I also made lots of new friends and learned lots of new things...

On the whole I would give the year 7/10... the 3 missing marks going to the things that I could have done better or more appropriately..


Friend awards (lol)
This section is dedicated to my dearest friends who have made the greatest difference in my life - without them, I wouldn't have made it thus far..haha

Best supporting fren goes to Wenx, for his unwaivering morale support.. always there to listen, always ready to go out to walk walk/chill/stoned whenever I feel down.. he even came down to AMK lib from his house in Aljunied to keep me company even when it was after his exams! Wahlao..dis kind of fren where to find? Siala.. Aljunied find lor..

Best new fren goes to Ivy! Actually not really "new" fren, but somehow we became very good frens this year. I think you qualify as best female fren oso... (haha, maybe cos i dun have many..=PPP) Thanks for all the cookies, cards, MSN conversations, SMSes and steroid creams.. haha.. the mornings in TTSH feel abit strange without you in the canteen... sounds abit scandalous... thanks for listening to my problems and trying to solve them too =)

Most admired fren goes to Quan Yao! I think QY win this award for almost every year I know him liao.. You are truly truly THE Ironman, unmatched in strength and perseverance. Iron in physique and iron in spirit. I need not say more. Respect is the word I give you..

Bestest CG mates goes to both Ning Qi and Ryan! So good-natured, so easy to get along with, so wise, so intelligent and not to mention so smooth and so shuai! Seriously, where to find CG mates whom you dun get sick of seeing everyday!? Haha.. so used to them liao, can't imagine a day in the wards without them...(ok sounds abit gay)

Most humerus humorous fren goes to Wenyang! Always ready with something to crack people up... (altho sometimes not very funny la) But everyone is always so happy wif yang around! Like what he say on his blog..he has the ability to 逗 people... zhai zhai... I dunno what the girls are waiting for sia...

Wisest fren goes to Ronnieee! 不鸣则已，一鸣惊人 is one phrase to properly describe.. dun see him always tiam tiam one.. his words of wisdom will stun you.. of cos he is always a reliable source of academic information. Ronnie say true means true; Ronnie say false means false. Ronnie say true you go and put false you get it wrong. Understand?


Other memorable quotes of the year (sorry lots of inside jokes)
  1. "So 低俗, 难怪你没有...."
  2. "EH! 讲完了没有??"
  3. "哪里有你帅?!?!?!"
  4. "Eh why you late this morning? Hot date last night riiight???"
  5. "If we go to hell, will you play minesweeper flags with me?"
  6. "Be strong..."
  7. "Errrrrrrrtttttttrrrrrreeeeeeeettttttrrr"
  8. "Awright awright awright..."
  9. "Very good. Very good."
  10. "What are the causes of clubbing eh??"
  11. "Yah har, yah har..."
  12. "Weiyan and his counsellees have how many eyebrows altogether???"
  13. "我姓洪,不性感.."
  14. "LJBM!!!"


posted by nwxiang at 12:37 AM | 0 comments